s with paraffin, and I did so. Now they
won't pay for it, and want me to take it back."

Smith opened his head, and emitted as large a guffaw as he ever allowed
himself to indulge in. Then he went to the front door and looked out
over the _veldt_, and returning took the two bottles and emptied their
contents back into the paraffin tin. Then he gave the bottles a brief
rinse in a tub of water, and filling them up from another tin precisely
similar to the first, handed them to the natives. The latter paid down
their money, and stowing the bottles carefully away among their
blankets, departed, now thoroughly satisfied.

"Didn't I give them the right kind?" said Gerard, who had witnessed this
performance with some amazement. "Ah, I see!" he broke off, as an odour
of spirits greeted his nostrils.

"You just didn't give them the right kind. Look here. When a nigger
brings a bottle and asks for paraffin, and goes like this--see?" making
a rapid sort of drinking sign, "you fill it out of this tin."

"But why don't they ask for it outright? Isn't there a word for it in
their language? Those fellows distinctly said `paraffin.'"

Again Smith emitted that half-hearted guffaw.

"Look here, Ridgeley. I'd have put you up to the ropes, but reckoned it
was Anstey's business. Don't you know the law of the Colony doesn't
allow grog to be sold to niggers, even in licenced houses, but there's a
sight of it done for all that. This isn't a licenced house, but we've
got to run with the times."

"And what if you're caught?"

"Mortal stiff fine. But that would be Anstey's look-out, not yours or
mine. And I tell you what. It's lucky for him I ain't a chap who's
likely to bear a grudge or cut up nasty, or I might round on him
properly for giving me the sack."

This incident had set Gerard thinking, and in fact it added considerable
weight to his dissatisfaction with his present position. Honest trade
was one thing, but to be required daily to break the laws of the land
was another. After Smith's departure, he put the matter fairly to his
employer.

"Oh, hang it! every one does it," was the characteristic reply. "You'll
never get on in life, Gerard, if you carry all those scruples along with
you. Too much top-hamper, don't you know--capsize the ship. See? Eh,
what? Against the law, did you say? Well, that's the fault of the law
for being so rotten. Meanwhile, we've got to live, and if the fellows
don't buy grog h